


Let's Talk Benefits

by kuroi_atropos



Category: Mission: Impossible (Movies), Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Assumed Relationship, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, M/M, Not Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 2 Compliant, Technobabble
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-18
Updated: 2015-08-21
Packaged: 2018-03-23 12:45:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 18,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3769066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuroi_atropos/pseuds/kuroi_atropos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clint Barton doesn't have a lot of time to prepare the IMF for S.H.I.E.L.D. going up in flames, even if he does have a modicum of sway as William Brandt. Still, he figures he can probably get a solid benefits package out of the deal if he survives his life coming down around his ears again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

The best way for Benji to describe William Brandt's behavior for the last day or so was "twitchy."

While the entire team getting dragged into the office building in DC that functioned as the undercover HQ of the IMF for questioning about a mission that, to their knowledge, hadn't reached FUBAR levels was annoying, it wasn't unusual enough that the rest of them were doing more than grumbling. The normally unflappable Agent/Analyst hadn't reacted in an overly odd manner either, however the rest of his field team couldn't help but share looks as they noted his fingers twitching at proverbial shadows. Add in the fact that he was having staring contests with random IMF personnel, whose reactions ranged from amused to annoyed to downright terrified, there was reason for concern.

It had gotten to the point where Benji caught himself quadruple-checking his systems and helping Jane as she ran through her own quadruple-checks on their personal equipment packs and raided the supply rooms for extra back-ups. Ethan was just hovering even closer to Will than he usually did, his snark kicking into high gear (both Benji and Jane bit back smirks at that and upped their bets on when their leader would finally ask their analyst out.)

“Agent Dunn!” Benji withheld a scowl as he ignored the forensic computer analyst that was trying to make him go over his hack of the GHR Bank's email system AGAIN in favor of running another test on the improved facial recognition software he had designed. Upgrading his personal software and checking his backdoor accesses wasn’t as visible as what Jane was doing to prepare, but if something went down, it would likely be just as useful. If he used those said back doors to try and check a few things above his clearance level, well, it wasn’t like either Ethan or Will would really care or actually do anything even if it was brought up. The two highest ranking members of their team technically maintained the IMF line on compartmentalization and need to know, and even followed it more often than not. Still they had a healthy respect for other Agents doing what they did best and an even healthier disregard for what they considered stupid orders that they thought might get their people killed.

Even more than other teams that had clearance level imbalances, their team just accepted that because of his position Will sometimes had additional information he couldn't even give a hint of having, and for the most part they were okay with that. They trusted that if it was something that really impacted them or something he truly needed help with, the Non-Disclosure Agreements would meet the proverbial shredder.

All in all, it meant that even though they really wanted to confront Will about being at that extra, mostly hidden level of cautious, most likely his reactions weren't because the team was in trouble for something. Will would probably have told them to disappear like he had when the interim Secretary between the lately departed one and the current one had fabricated evidence against them and tried to pin a screw up on them. Instead they had all just nodded at each other and checked their resources, contacts, and backdoors while circling Will protectively. 

Especially as all they found were hushed not-rumors that often times happened with intelligence agencies that something big had happened with S.H.I.E.L.D., the Agency that ran the Avengers among other things, but no one had any facts. Even Ethan hadn't been able to dig anything solid up though, and he had been pressing everyone he knew given the excessive number of closed door meetings Will had been in. It could have just been that they were hypersensitive to the meetings right now since they meant that one of them couldn’t be right by Will, but in Benji’s perfectly humble opinion there had been less meetings after the incident with the bananas and balloons in Bucharest. 

Even if the meetings turned out to be nothing, and Will’s twitchiness was just him having enough trouble with someone in his personal life that he couldn't keep it from impacting his job, no one messed with their analyst. Their prep wouldn’t be for nothing as Jane and Ethan would no doubt do something terrifying and Benji would have anything the person had ever done come back to haunt them and add them to every sex offender registry on the planet to make their life even more miserable just for kicks.

"Agent Dunn, are you even listening!" Benji looked up from his screen at the nitwit that was obviously trying too hard to be Abby Sciuto from NCIS and put on his best Ethan-glare.

He would not admit that it still needed work as the other man just raised an eyebrow.

XxXxX

There were a couple of things that had flown through Clint Barton's mind when he received a text from one of Natasha's more secure emergency numbers.

None of them had been even remotely good.

The two word phrase, "is people," was a signal that he currently couldn't trust anyone, at all, especially the governments or other assorted agencies that served them. It wasn't quite a run for the hills, but it was the last step away from it. He also hadn't received a back ping from his latest report to Agent Blake even though it was tagged for top priority and dealt with another cache of Chitauri weaponry. Plus the fact that he had been in meeting after meeting about something causing S.H.I.E.L.D. to lock ranks and cutoff most communication in the midst of an agency wide manhunt for an individual undisclosed to other agencies…

But the cherry on top was that Nat's text went to his William Brandt phone. She never broke covers like that. Natasha had to have found something terrifying that she needed him to know about immediately, rather than sending it to his Clint phone and waiting for him to check it.

Ultimately, it wasn't surprising that Ethan and the rest of his team were looking at him worriedly. He was never as good at keeping his cover as Nat was. Instead he was pretty sure that his IMF team might be able to tell that he was debating how much he trusted them with things other than his life, along the fact that he had pretty much come to the conclusion that the new IMF Secretary would be a bigger hindrance alive if he needed to split.

As Clint stared down the new Secretary over yet another batch of stupid reports and other completely unneeded red tape in relation to using the S.H.I.E.L.D.'s sudden lock in ranks to re-stabilize the IMF position in Africa, he decided that he mostly, really truly mostly, trusted his IMF team. Not because of what they had done in the past, though that helped, but because he was sure that if he killed the Director right now, the others would help him hide the body.

Still, until he got word from Natasha, he would hold off on sharing anything because she was the only person left that Clint did trust completely. 

"Are we boring you, Agent Brandt?" Will snapped his attention to one of the Secretary's new cronies, a Director with more titles than sense, and bit back the comment from Clint that came to mind. The guy took a step back and Will scowled internally, he'd let a bit too much of Clint out there. Seriously, this was why Natasha was the better spy and he really should just be told to shoot things, no matter what Coulson had said.

He smiled brightly, "Not at all." He flicked the file he had been looking closed. At least he could blow off some steam by freaking them out with his memory. You'd think with all the brilliant people that these politicians dealt with daily, they wouldn't mind a little demonstration of nearly eidetic memory.

XxXxX

Jane scowled as she thumbed through another batch of possible facial recognition matches from the traffic cameras around Wills condo. Their ever resourceful Analyst had slipped their net last night before Ethan could ‘show up with some brews to watch the game.’ If Jane hadn’t been a little worried that Will might have pulled an Ethan and taken a solo mission to spare them from some horrible-administratively mandated fate, Jane would really have approved of the creative levels of swearing that Ethan had achieved.

Now, after five hours of increasingly worried searching, they still had no sign of the fourth member of their team. They had regrouped at IMF HQ to quietly tap their various resources and see if they could dig anything up, Ethan to try and sweet talk leads out of the Secretary and his various Directors, and Benji to the techs, with Jane running interference for them both and following up anything that needed an extra set of eyes. 

This meant that Jane was rather surprised when a chat window popped up on her tablet screen from Kathy at the front desk, basically telling her to get down to the main Security Desk before Will arranged to have everyone in the lobby fired on general principle. Will was trying to get someone into the building without a sign in or badge with a combination of his position and well-filed, properly approved paperwork, however a newbie was being particularly obtuse to the point no one else could get a word in edgewise. 

Jane had no issue terrifying people in her rush to get down there even as she fired a text to Ethan and Benji.

When she got down there though, she felt more than a bit surprised.

Jane really did have to take a moment to blink and stare at Will. It was unusual to see him wear anything besides impeccably tailored, high end business wear, but he was pulling off the chunky turtleneck sweater, leather jacket, and slightly baggy jeans over combat boots rather well.

It didn't hurt that he had an obvious fire to his eyes and was in particularly fine form as he shredded the Junior Agent that apparently had a hard time figuring out what a form GAI128 meant in relation to the slightly bemused, curly haired man that had wandered in with him a few minutes before. Even if the man seemed somewhat familiar, Jane couldn't really figure out why this man rated one of the highest private accesses you could get to the building.

Still…

"Need any help, Will?" She asked from right behind the Junior Agent's ear, causing him to jump and belatedly reach for his gun. The piece was snatched out of his reach and the magazine released before he could blink by a scowling Will that had moved fast enough to even startle Jane. That was a very quick reaction time, even for him.

"No, but thank you," Will stated with a scowl. "Danners here was going to let us in now."

This particular Junior Agent, who had been witness to both Will and Jane having made it through metal detectors at least twice, and was now dealing with Will's impeccably processed forms to let the man at his side in without any type of security check no matter how suspicious he seemed, finally seemed to get a clue and waved the two men on.

Will's smile as he stalked forward was slightly predatory and Jane almost didn't know what to think as it was such an unusual look on his face. Still she fell in beside her teammate and his guest on the way towards the elevators.

"Jane, we need the team in the Situation Room ASAP."

Jane nodded, pulling out her phone to send another text to the others as she followed after Will and the rather-too-familiar-for-her-comfort stranger that was keeping up with him stride for stride. "Gear?"

Will gave a short barking laugh that was so unlike him it almost had her reaching for her gun. "Anything Benji needs to help hack everything in the world?" He said with a sarcastic edge that was pure Will after having been made to deal with heights on top of too many meetings with the new Secretary and the gaggle of idiot yes-men that he had brought in to fill positions left vacant by the Ghost Protocol and too little coffee.

"Shouldn't we just call To-" the man started only to have Will pivot and glare at him, and proceed to walk backwards down the hall for a few steps. It was oddly fascinating to watch the two men have a silent communication through the use of various raised eyebrows and grimaces. Jane wasn't sure what was more disturbing, that William Brandt was walking backwards or that he was actually really good at it. While Will was in top form for an Agent and fit in well with them, he really did act more like an Analyst, all proper and buttoned up, the perfect straight man to their insanity, and you'd never see him doing something random like walking backwards.

By the time Will had to spin around to stop from running into the people waiting at the elevators, the silent conversation had ended with the curly haired guy finally shrugging and rolling his eyes. They traveled up to the Sit-Room by the time Jane finished her back-and-forth with Benji via text (the secured text service worked through the internal network, cell signals were much more iffy). Ethan was already there without her having to contact him, waiting with a raised eyebrow. Jane was half tempted to make a comment about people using their words, but Will looked fairly grim faced and even more skittish than he had the past few days. The person Will was escorting seemed perfectly okay with that behavior from him, which meant either he knew Will under different circumstances than they did, or only through bad enough situations for Will to be behaving this way.

Then Will's head tilt to Ethan had their team leader sliding into mission mode and Jane on pure instinct followed.

They entered the SitRoom and as always, when the former Head Analyst (who was still Head Analyst in all but name truthfully) entered the room, all of the other Analysts snapped just a bit more to attention even if their eyes never left their screens. 

Will led the team over to one of the 3D tables that had recently been installed and brought it online, and Jane glared a few people into moving so that she could commandeer the surrounding workstations for Benji while Ethan watched the room with narrowed eyes. Will leaned over and whispered something to his guest as he flicked a few screens over to him. The man nodded and expertly began manipulating them.

Jane watched as (with a rather unusual disregard for privacy rules) Will started opening up several personnel files. Without even needing a moment to adjust to the high-tech tables, the curly-haired-guy was quickly bringing up and preparing a series of communication connections, adding more occasionally when Will muttered something. With a glance at Jane and Ethan, Will flipped through the files he had up, as if comparing them to a mental list before he nodded and flicked his fingers over the screen. A moment later, both Jane and Ethan's phones beeped.

Will waved them in close and muttered low. "Jane, I need the people on your list in this room within the next half hour with a full escort, keep them in the back so they can't see the screens and don't let them talk to each other, and keep an eye out for signals. Ethan, yours are at other Op Centers or in the field, get people you trust and bring them in, they're not allowed to communicate with anyone else in any way. Try to keep this as quiet as possible, we can't tip any of them off that we're moving this early."

"What is going on, Will?" Ethan asked, his gaze boring into Will. “What’s the goal here?”

Will looked at him a little incredulously, like he couldn’t quite believe that he was having to answer these questions now. “What’s going on and the goal is to get the people on those lists isolated before any damage can be done.” 

“I need more, Will. If there’s a threat to the IMF we need to neutralize it,” Ethan stated. 

Will shook his head, “I can’t risk it.” 

“You’re trusting us to help with this, you need to trust us with why, Will,” their leader almost hissed. Jane looked back and forth between Ethan’s hyper focused, ‘I need control of this’ face and Will’s slightly frustrated, time crunch pissy look and sighed. Even if they got out of whatever this was okay, Ethan and Will would probably be having words about this later. 

Finally Will bowed his head a little, before meeting Ethan’s stare pleadingly. 

"I'm sorry. I can't risk explaining it quite yet. But I need your help, please." Ethan looked for something in his eyes, and whatever it was he found it, nodding in acquiescence before stepping away to start checking his phone. Jane gave Will a quick nod herself before slipping out of the room and stalking towards the Head of Security’s office while reviewing her own files.

XxXxX

Bruce tapped his finger to the side of the contact button for Tony. He had all of the feeds for S.H.I.E.L.D. and pretty much every alphabet agency Bruce had heard of regardless of country (along with a few even he hadn't) set up like Clint had asked, but he was a little concerned with how Clint was acting. Bruce was almost, but not quite, ashamed of the fact that he kept checking to see if Clint's eyes had the blue haze of the Tesseract's energy.

It really didn't help his stress levels that these other people—who were most decidedly not S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents but in between the building and the attitudes had that same super-secret quasi-military vibe—were calling Clint by a different name. He especially noted that they all acted rather concerned by his current behavior as well, though just like Bruce they were still trusting him.

"Just a bit longer, Doc," Clint muttered as he intently watched Security bring several people into the back of the room even as he kept processing various screens and initiating various programs. There was a rather excited man (Bruce was pretty sure he was the Benji mentioned earlier) leading a team of techies near them that would jump whenever Clint would throw a screen at him. It was like he was almost, but not quite used to the holo-screens and 3D tech. He also kept stealing glances at Clint, then flicking his eyes to the other two people that Clint was communicating most with. Even with his nervousness the man had expertly lead the techs in setting up a rig that could pretty much do as Clint had requested earlier and hack the entire world as Clint still wasn’t providing any more specifics. 

The reminder of which was enough to make him start tapping his finger again.

Something was definitely up, and Bruce didn't like where any of his thoughts were taking him.

"Benji, ready to forward transmission, process the download, and prep the counter blocks. On my mark."

"Will," the man looked up a little apprehensively, before nodding. Well, that confirmed he was Benji. "Our system should be able to handle some of the specs you've given me, and I'm ready to tap a few other supercomputers if needed, but I don't-"

"I've got everyone, Will. They're catching on something isn't right and are getting pretty nervous though," the Natasha like woman, Jane, interrupted as she moved up to them again. "The Secretary caught wind of things and he’s on his way in. Same with Larson." Bruce didn't know who the Secretary or Larson were, but Clint looked about as happy as he had when he'd been dragged off for interrogation immediately after shawarma.

His scowl was actually quite impressive and Bruce sighed.

Some type of annoying bureaucrat was just what he needed after he'd been dragged in by Clint without the chance to stop for his normal tea on top of the promise of dealing with Fury after whatever scheme the archer (which, by default, meant Natasha too) was about to set into play. Whatever it was would have to be good, since Clint didn't look nervous in the least though he was twitchy and annoyed.

"Why do I have the feeling that this is going to be bad for my blood pressure?" Bruce asked.

"Because Doc, the world is about to get turned upside down again," Clint smiled that predatory smile again.

"Uh, what do you mean by that, Will? 'Cause you know, I'd really like to avoid our team being disavowed again. That was not pleasant at all," Benji practically whined. 'Again?' Bruce thought questioningly. Whatever ‘disavowed' was didn’t sound pleasant, and Benji was saying it had already happened to Clint’s team before. Which brought up the thought that, really, another team? How many were he and Natasha on? 

With no response to Benji’s comment other than his grin gaining a slightly manic edge to it, Clint turned back to his own screen. "Get Tony on, Bruce."

Bruce tapped the screen to initiate the call through Tony's emergency number. Luckily it only took two rings for the billionaire to answer. "BIG GREEN! I'm glad that you called! I have th-"

"Tony!" Bruce called out.

"-is absolutely awesome idea for a way to bre-" 

Bruce sighed as he heard Benji start fanboying in the background about it being the Tony Stark. "Tony! Focus on me for a second!" Bruce tried again, especially since he saw Clint twitch from the reflection on his screen.

"You are harshing my creative vibe, Bruce!"

"Stark! We don't have time for this!" Clint grit out as he spun Bruce's screen to glare at Tony.

"Legolas! You are getting taken off of the fun list."

"I'll cry into my pillow later, Tin Man," Clint snapped rather uncharacteristically and tapped a few buttons on his own screen. "I'm sending some data to Jarvis."

"Yeah, I'm getti-" Tony blinked and immediately sobered. "This is-"

"I know what it is, Tony. We need to stream the feed in the first batch globally and help the distribution of the secondary file batch, I've got things set up here to process most of it, but we need to pick the feed up in the first place — it should be anytime now, but I know exactly how fast your back door access and those credentials will get you through so you need to start now. The other transmissions should take care of themselves."

"Do you know wh-"

"I can't risk anything else through any channel quite yet. It will make sense soon, unfortunately." Clint looked as sad as Bruce had seen him since those first days after Manhattan when they'd run into each other as they went in and out of various meetings.

"I've already got frequency for the feed, it's really just the Triskelion’s Internal Intercom though, so unless you want messages about field day or something not sure what good it's going to do you."

"Great, Benji, what's the number of that Port I had you set up earlier?"

"Will, I really don-"

"Port number, Benji."

"3378."

"Port 3378 on the server I am sending you should be prepped for Jarvis. That'll allow him to access the IMF system. Stick to what I've flagged and the data packet transmission that is about to transmit from S.H.I.E.L.D. please." Tony waved a hand idly, his eyes darting back and forth as he looked over everything that Clint had sent.

"I am connecting now," came the British voice through the screen and Benji had yet another minor fanboy moment in the background as he realized, 'that's the Jarvis, like the most advanced and incredible AI ever! Will!'.

"We'll need to prep for the-"

"What the hell, Barton!" Tony suddenly yelled. "Natasha being a traitor? Not something I see, but you two are super spy assassin twins of doom. No one knows what either of you're thinking. But Cap? There is no way Cap's a traitor!"

The entire room around them froze at Tony's words and Clint tilted his head in the screen's direction, obviously annoyed.

Bruce took in Clint's form, which was settling into the relaxed readiness that it normally did before he started shooting things in response to Tony's glare. He glanced at the non S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents that were realizing Tony had called Clint a name they didn't recognize and that Clint had just had them set up what amounted to a global communications and security system override. Bruce stepped back out of the line of fire and away from the desk just in case, though several eyes tracked his movements.

"I'll ask it again, what is Fury thinking?" Tony, who for all his ability to be oblivious to things that he would rather not think about, was still remarkably intuitive to tense situations, especially if he caused them. Still, Tony was always willing to give an Avenger a second shot, which was why he was continuing to work on the holographic keyboards that now covered their view of him. The results of that were that Bruce could track the computer windows that started to remotely shift or locked down on their end as Tony processed through them, quickly shutting down any electronic method someone could use to stop Clint from doing what he was doing.

This was probably a good idea as suddenly from behind Bruce came one of the most annoying throat clearing noises that he had ever heard. Bruce turned around and saw the dark haired man—Ethan maybe?—from before with two older guys that screamed 'annoying bureaucrats with too much power' to Bruce's trained, grant seeking senses. Given the flat look on Clint's face, he took another step back so that archer could handle the idiots without having to worry overly much about Bruce accidentally getting shot by any of the increasingly twitchy trigger fingers in the room. If anyone wanted to shoot Bruce they would be doing it on purpose which meant Bruce would have relatively little issue with the Other Guy smashing them.

"Want to explain what is going on here, Agent Brandt?" One of the men questioned with an expression Bruce could only call a condescending sneer, complete with an extra kind of smug appreciation as he spoke Clint’s title. Bruce's tension levels were slightly mollified by the way pretty much everyone in the room shot various looks of annoyance at man.

"Secretary Boxter, Mr. Larson, until I say so, this is above your clearance," Clint stated simply and turned back to his screen, pulling up a few things that Bruce recognized as various S.H.I.E.L.D. frequencies through the remote window that Tony and Jarvis had just created on his screen. Bruce watched Tony eyeball Clint for a second before narrowing his eyes and glancing to Bruce who shrugged; he had no idea what was going on. Tony raised an eyebrow and opened his mouth before he was cut off by the other of the two paper pushers.

"Agent Brandt, or should I say, Barton, you had better re-think that statement." Bruce sighed as he watched Tony's eyes narrow.

Great…

"And you are?" came Tony's voice came through in that overly-sweet, 'aren't you cute' sounding way that he used with particularly dumb reporters and 90% of politicians.

Well, Bruce had heard from the rumor mill how Tony shut down Ross before. This was bound to be equally entertaining.

The one that had cut Tony off gave the video feed a look that rivaled the previous one leveled at Clint and said, "I'm Secretary Daniel Boxter, Head of the Impossible Mission Force, and whatever is going on in this Agency doesn't concern you, Stark. S.H.I.E.L.D. may pander to stuck-up rich boys, but I don't."

At that, Tony burst out laughing. Actually, Bruce had to hide a smile himself. "You think Fury 'panders' to me? No, Fury just knows a good investment when he sees one. You obviously don't have even his level of brains, which, I'm sure, is why I've never heard of you before." And then he turned to Clint. "Why am I listening to this idiot?"

Clint smirked, "I was wondering the same thing."

"Brandt!" Boxter yelled, making the mistake of grabbing Clint's arm. Bruce wasn't sure why Clint didn't just end the guy for that, but this entire thing was strange. "Security, place Agent Brandt or Barton or whatever his name is under arrest for espionage. Agent Dunn, shut these things down immediately! I don't know what he has told you, but--"

“Secretary, I would re-think what you’re doing,” most-likely-Ethan interjected as he stepped right up into Boxter’s space. Bruce noticed that he had the same body placement that Clint and Natasha used when they were still giving the person they were backing up room to move on their own. It was basically an intimidation stance, and one that had all the Security people freezing. Interesting, so even though Clint and this guy weren’t in charge, they definitely held more loyalty. 

At that point Bruce really couldn't help it. He might be just as lost as Tony at this point, confused and a little nervous, but this seemed like it was big. And right now, his only option was trusting Clint; the fact that this Secretary guy and his crony were pissing him off was just a bonus. Bruce stood taller, drawing some of the room’s attention to himself, his face a mask of calm civility as he addressed the bureaucrats. "I wouldn't advise arresting my friend. It might make me angry."

"And why should I care about whether you are angry or not?" Boxter asked snidely.

Bruce just smiled.

"Uh, trust me, you don't want to make him mad. I'd really rather not lose every piece of equipment in the room...if we're lucky," Clint stated, actually looking a little worried. "We really, really need this set up right now."

"And why is that?" The other man, Larson, asked snidely, and Clint opened his mouth to answer before the main frequency that Clint had had Tony pull up, the Internal Intercom, dinged.

"Perfect timing," Clint said, with what Bruce could only describe as a sad smile.

Using that nearly supernatural quickness that both Clint and Natasha could display at times, Clint flipped Secretary Boxter to the floor and triggered the S.H.I.E.L.D. frequency before anyone could do anything. Suddenly Steve—no, this was full on I-am-Captain-America-do-what-I-say-right-now started talking and all of the forwarding connections that they had set up triggered perfectly, broadcasting his words across the planet. As Cap went on, Bruce felt his heart drop, and all he could do was stare horrified at the fluctuating audio level line that followed the voice transmission.

"Oh my God…" Bruce whispered.

Bruce saw movement out of the corner of his eye and in a blink, Clint had a handgun pointed at the group of people corralled in the back, Jane and Ethan following his lead on where to point their weapons without blinking, and all of them froze, staring at Clint, specifically.

"But the price of freedom is high. It always has been. And it's a price I'm willing to pay," Cap stated, voice somber, and Bruce watched Clint's face twist into a sad looking smirk. "And if I'm the only one, then so be it."

One of the people in the back twitched and without hesitation, Clint put a bullet between his eyes. The man fell to the ground, a gun falling with a thud beside him. Guns from dozens of people in the room flew up, either landing on Clint and his friends who kept their guns aimed steadily to the group in the back, or joining them in aiming at the group in the back as Cap finished. "But I'm willing to bet I'm not."

The transmission cut off, and Bruce had no idea what to say as he stared at the person Clint had just killed. Clint said it for him.

"You just heard a Sit-Rep from Captain America himself. If anyone in this room, especially you S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents in the back, so much as moves a muscle before you're cleared you'll be joining him," Clint switched to one of those one handed grips that only he and Natasha could truly seem to pull off, and he started typing on his screen with his other one in a new window that popped up with the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo.

"Tony, lock all outside communication from this room until we clear everyone. Benji, hook this board up to the channel I just gave you, then get your hands off your keyboard," Clint called as he quickly typed in what looked like a series of usernames and passwords. ("Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god….." Benji was frantically whispering even as he complied, his screen the only one in the room that didn't flash to a lock screen. Bruce felt pretty much the same.) After a brief loading screen, a disembodied synthetic voice came from the tables speakers. "Provide Identification."

"ID: Hawkeye. Authorization: Barton, Clint. Serial: 8-553-692. Access Code: B84W-Trickshot-P69C-TA."

"Welcome, Hawkeye." The screen switched to an almost root directory/BIOS style screen. "Immediate redirect in place. Connecting to Assistant Director Hill."

A message window popped up next to the original screen that was currently loading multiple lines, most flashing red.

A line of text moved across it that was read to the room in that same computerized voice: "BW in - CA and A1 moving to targets - R incoming - sending dl 1 now, 2 and 3 eta below. Going to text only."

Clint double tapped the etas and large countdowns from the given times started on one of the main screens. He swallowed for a moment before he double tapped another of the reports and underneath the countdowns, one of the Alerts expanded. Now Bruce could see that it was a casualty list, as a new name and condition scrolled out on the bottom.

"Jarvis, please lock onto the incoming data transfer. Run the included targeting algorithm and send warnings to get as far underground as possible to the people designated and/or prep for a possible incoming missile strike."

"Sir?"

"Do it, Jarvis," Tony snapped, seething. He was also quickly working across all the screens that were popping up in front of him even as his suit built up around him. "I'm on my way to the Triskelion now."

"Leave that to Cap and Black Widow, Tony."

"Like He-"

"Iron Man! I'm sending you coordinates for the Cube. It's in a prison for captured high threat targets. Sitwell," Clint swallowed, "given that Sitwell was in charge of assigning Agents there and that he was a damned HYDRA traitor I need you and War Machine there."

"Yeah well considering I'm on at least 3 of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s high thre-"

"Some of the current people incarcerated there are Emil Blonsky, AKA the Abomination, Viktor Doom, Samuel Sterns, Justin Hammer, and Nathaniel Essex," Clint interrupted calmly, even as he kept working screens. "I trust Cap and Nat to do what they need to do, just like I trust that Thor is making his way to the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy to try and protect those kids like I asked, I am trusting you to help where we need you." Even through the closed faceplate of the suit, Bruce could tell that Tony was having a hard time deciding whether to go along with what Clint was asking, or to do his own thing like normal. Bruce on the other hand knew two of the names on that list personally.

"Tony, go, please. We're close to the Triskelion and I can be there if needed," Bruce chimed in stepping over the gaping idiot Boxter on the ground and starting to pull data through the table again. He ignored the rumble of smashsmashsmashsmashsmash in the back of his head and forced himself to focus. Jarvis, as helpful as ever, displayed the algorithm results, many of them already highlighting the fact that all of the Avengers were on it. Bruce viciously held back the Hulk as Betty's name flashed across the screen. Jarvis was also compiling a list from Clint and Hill of people they had confirmed to be HYDRA. The number of people on it made Bruce feel nauseous.

"Fine," Stark bit out. "Switching to suit systems. This is going to slow down some of your direct requests for me though, Legolas. Jarvis, temporarily increase Bruce and Clint's access to match Peppers, and provide help with interfacing and utilizing our systems to any techies they approve within the Fahrenheit protocols."

"Understood, Sir."

Clint nodded. "Thanks, Tony."

The screen went dead as Iron Man's repulsors flared, and an audio connection to his suit sprung up minimized in the corner.

"Will-" Ethan stated as he turned a little from the people he still had his gun trained on, and took a step towards the archer and in a blink, Clint had the hand that had been typing pointing a second gun dead center of the man's forehead. Ethan promptly froze.

Clint actually looked apologetic as he stated, "Ethan, aside from Bruce, I probably trust you more than anyone else in this building, but there were people I trusted more that turned out to be HYDRA. Push me and you will learn first-hand why I am the best damn shot on the planet." 

The man nodded, a look of resigned understanding on his face, and Bruce almost felt bad for him. But Clint was right.

Fury was dead.

The Avengers had been betrayed by S.H.I.E.L.D. itself and S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ was in the middle of a bloodbath right now as Cap and Black Widow fought to bring the new Helicarriers down.

And their enemies…

Sitwell, Rumlow, Alpha team...

Their enemies had been their friends not even a week ago.

And if the Avengers immediate contacts and support could be HYDRA, then anyone could be. HYDRA was in the very infrastructure used to catch it to the point a member of the World Security Council was a traitor. They had all the tools, all the access, to pick out everyone that could hurt them, and if Project Insight launched they would be able to.

And wasn't that an idea…

"Clint!" Bruce called out. Even though Clint didn't take his focus off Ethan and the rest of the room, Bruce could feel his attention. He quickly pulled up the RFID tags for the badges in the room and ran it against the targeting data provided by the algorithm in the first data transfer that Jarvis was currently handling, feeding the resulting dataset through the Stark Industries Supercomputer for an added speed boost. While that answer set was returning he started on the entire IMF roster that Clint had given him access to and he executed that query right as his first answer set came back.

"The targeting algorithm is pulling up your William Brandt ID on top of your Hawkeye ID, so that was still secure somehow. Other targets in this room on top of you and me are Ethan Hunt, Benji Dunn, Jane Carter, Natalie Connors, Helen Tanner, and Maxwell Winner."

Bruce didn't think he'd ever seen such a look of relief cross someone's face as the one that crossed Clint's right then, and Clint's gun dropped from Ethan like it weighed as much as the Hulk. Ethan, Jane, and even Benji to a degree just seemed to nod, while the three other people Bruce named jumped in near panic. One of the Security Agents was quick enough to pull the two confirmed non-HYDRA people away from the rest of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents, and to his credit didn't flinch when Clint's remaining gun tracked him. Several people glanced at the Analyst that was currently sagging against her station, a mix between terror and pride on her face, the two S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents just looked like they were going to be sick.

"Guys, I-"

"What do you need us to do?" Jane asked, cutting him off.

"Call it, Clint," Ethan backed-up. The room, which had been dead silent before, suddenly broke out in agreeing shouts. Despite the severity of the situation Bruce had to duck his head to hide a smile and the Other Guy let out a throaty chuckle that echoed through his mind at Clint's stunned look.

The sudden clamoring was broken off by Benji's panicked shout. "I am touching my keyboard please don't shoot me!" The Agent slammed his hands to his keyboard and started typing as fast as Tony did when he was in a pissing match with Reed Richards. "We're getting that massive data dump you called out earlier and I should have believed you but I didn't because you're the best analyst on the planet, but I just thought you didn't really realize the data size you were talking about! We need to start shifting this volume across our servers and opening more load balancers or we're going to crash because I wasn't prepared for this! Our current system configuration can't take any more of this, Will—I mean Clint!"

Bruce glanced at the countdowns and sure enough, the first one was currently reading straight zeros. He started to notice other monitors beginning to flare with system alerts as well.

"Agent Dunn," said Jarvis through the table speakers, "I am currently opening several Stark Industries servers for your use. Agent Barton, please note that through Agent Romanov's tracking program I count 7,692 entities receiving this download. I understand that you seemed prepared for this, but given that this appears to be every S.H.I.E.L.D. file, including levels classified that even Mr. Stark has been unable to access thus far, would you like me to try and mitigate this?"

Bruce's head snapped to the screen and he heard Benji whisper, "Oh my God," again.

"No, Jarvis. Cap made the call. S.H.I.E.L.D. is done." Bruce couldn't help but look up to make sure Clint seemed as okay as he could get since the pain in that last sentence choked his voice a bit. "Ethan, any leverage that you've got, we need to get back up to the Cube for Iron Man and War Machine, to the Academy to help evacuate, and to start pulling S.H.I.E.L.D. UCs and teams out from ops. Everything and anyone is now compromised so any advanced weapons caches that they can make it too before the bad guys would be good, too. Jane, I'm sending you a list of people we currently know are HYDRA, we need to start getting as many of them in custody as fast as we can."

"Mission accepted," Ethan stated as he stepped forward and placed a hand on Clint's shoulder, a supportive look on his face. A moment later he pulled out his phone and moved to one of the computers.

"Hold it right there!" The bureaucrat that Clint hadn't sent to the floor earlier snapped, stepping forward. "You've always been off, Brandt! And before anything else happens you are going to be answering some questions!" Larson was practically snarling by the time he finished and he had the sheer audacity to walk straight into Clint's line of fire on his aimed gun.

As if on cue, a scream sounded from the back of the room where the S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents had been gathered. Bruce spun around to see the terrified expressions on most of the faces around her as a smirking woman with long black hair pulled a pen out of one of the Security Agent's neck with a psychotic smirk on her face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I kind of had several ideas for some Phil/Clint stories, along with some Will/Ethan stories and then Captain America 2 happened and despite some issues that I had with the movie I suddenly had all these little “might be cool if” ideas kind of smack together into a plot bunny/story from the theological realm of eternal torment. 
> 
> Please let me know what you think.
> 
> Edited 06/27/2015 - fixed a few formatting and grammar errors that I spotted.
> 
> Edit: 08/21/2015 - fixed yet more grammar and formatting and others issues that I found..... One day.... *headdesk*


	2. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clint Barton doesn't have a lot of time to prepare the IMF for S.H.I.E.L.D. going up in flames, even if he does have a modicum of sway as William Brandt. Still, he figures he can probably get a solid benefits package out of the deal if he survives his life coming down around his ears again.

The moment he saw the woman with her weapon of choice in the man's neck, Ethan Hunt sighted his weapon and fired. Using the Security Agent as a shield, she launched into the air straight at Will—Clint—in a way that didn’t seem completely human. The distance, the height – Ethan would have been able to hit that with a running start and a pole vault for leverage, but she leaped it from practically a stand still.

While Ethan was still processing and readjusting his shot, Clint shoved Larson out of the way (the sight of the ineffectual Head Analyst tripping over a still prostrate Boxter was something he filed away to laugh at later) and used the backwards momentum to bounce back against a table, where he braced himself for a series of rapid fire shots. The woman arched inhumanly in the air, twisting as if anticipating Clint’s shots, and sparks flew from where the bullets ricocheted of a sword that she pulled from somewhere that Ethan would have to figure out later, because he would kill whoever let that slip through security.

That would be after he wrapped his head around an actual sword, however. Ethan had his own share of composite blades designed not to set off metal detectors, but they were small - functional. They were tools or weapons for the extremely rare missions that required only a willing body and a knife in the dark. A sword… Really?

She came down with a wild, gleeful laugh almost on top of his Analyst, and Clint pivoted, sliding up under her fall to pistol whip her across the face without batting an eye, as if sword wielding maniacs weren’t anything unusual. Even as she fell back from the force of blow, the woman twisted with the momentum and swung her legs up to wrap around Clint's neck in a choke move. Clint managed to get one arm up between her legs, bringing his other arm around to aim his secondary weapon right at her face. Arching her back like something out of the circus, she managed to keep her head out of the range of fire and slicing that sword unerringly at Clint’s Achilles tendon.

Ethan, who’d never stopped tracking the weapon, managed one of the best shots of his life, and the bullet impacted the sword, knocking it out of her hand. She screeched, but in a disconcertingly insane way, utilized the recoil of the sword being thrown from her grip and managed to nail Clint in the knee enough that he was forced to twist and adjust his own placement to counter. 

The two of them continued throwing attacks at each other, trying to get that pivotal opening, and Ethan was secure enough to admit that he would be hard pressed to keep up with either of them in a direct, one on one confrontation. They were fighting fast and viciously lethal, going straight for moves that would at the least permanently maim their opponent if fully connected.

They were ripping into each other at such a close, twisted range that neither Ethan or Jane could get a bead on the woman to take the kill shot. 

The level of skill Clint was currently fighting at went beyond the already excellent level Clint-as-Will normally displayed. Ethan made a note that when all of this was over, he was going to make Clint go all out in their next spar, and every one after that until he could keep up.

Somehow in spite of the fact that this woman seemed to be able to move in inhuman ways and was fast enough that Ethan didn't want to risk a shot, Clint eventually managed a maneuver that planted his feet squarely on her chest and used her as a kickboard to launch off of her onto the 3D table. Ethan felt a rush of something he wasn’t going to name at the trust the move displayed, as it left him winded on his back for just a breath, but the opening it created for Ethan was just enough. He immediately took the shot, but she reacted quickly enough that it winged her rather than hit her center mass like he had been aiming for. The woman merely laughed the wound off with a terrifying disregard as she darted into the crowd of Security and Analysts, her long black hair a snapping tail behind her. She weaved through them as faster than they could dodge, making it impossible to get a consistent bead on her.

That was until she got an arrow in the knee.

She slammed into the ground with a howl and another arrow flew from behind him to stick into her eye socket, killing her.

Ethan spun to see Clint standing on the 3D table, another arrow already nocked to the high tech looking bow he currently had drawn. His guns were on the table at his feet, next to a quiver that had somehow extended out of a slot in the table. Well, it was a bit better than a sword he guessed.

And then it clicked.

"Hawkeye. Like the Avenger?" Ethan asked with a raised eyebrow, and Clint smiled in a way that was so like Will it made his chest ache with loss. They both ignored Benji's "oh my god Will is a literal superhero" and Jane's "the next round is so on you, Will" even as she quickly patted down the woman’s body for additional weaponry, coming away with a whip of all things. 

What was wrong with a couple of guns? 

Clint eyed the room one more time before releasing the tension in his bow and flipping off the table, sticking a landing that dropped him into one of those ringmaster bows, with his legs stuck together, upper body stretched and arms extended out, his bow dangling from his fingers almost idly. "Clint Barton, A.K.A Hawkeye, the Avenger." He stood, and met Ethan’s gaze, appearing almost sad, and Ethan couldn’t help but give him a reassuring smile so their locked gazes turned to a shared look of understanding and acceptance. "Back to business."

Ethan nodded; they would deal with personal issues due to the revelation of Brandt's true identity later. This was probably already blowing up other agencies that hadn't had even as much of a warning as Clint gave them. He'd have to be fast and ruthless to get the help that Clint needed to prevent as much damage as possible.

"Wha-" Ethan glared down at Boxter and Larson, shutting both of them help. Normally, he avoided throwing his full weight around as there was no reason to. He existed as a Team Leader (given that it was of four separate Director’s Own teams) and Field Agent as he honestly hated dealing with the upper politics of various black agencies, but enough was enough. If push came to shove, the people that mattered would listen to him, not those idiots.

"Help or get replaced. We don't have time to deal with your stupidity," Ethan snapped, before hitting his speed dial for Luther. The man should probably actually be in the building, and he'd be able t- 

"Clint!" The curly haired guy that had come in with Clint (and Ethan was drawing a blank on him, for all that he somehow knew he should recognize the man) yelled, with something pretty close to terror in his voice from where he was working at the screens on the 3D table. "They're locking targets!"

Ethan glanced at the timers Clint had displayed earlier. The second timer was at 00:00:00.

The man flicked his hand and two small screen moved up to the main board. A surprisingly crystal clear satellite view of three massive ships raising into the air out from where the ship ports at S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ normally were made shivers run up his spine. The other, likely a duplicated computer screen, chilled him to the bone. Red targeting slides were focusing in, flashing through individuals at a horrible pace. A map of the entire eastern seaboard was painted red. Ethan bit back a curse as he knew that in this room alone, his entire team, the curly haired guy, the two S.H.I.E.L.D agents, and the IMF Analyst were all being painted.

Clint spun and moved back to stare at the text update screen. "Come on, Nat… Cap…"

The curly haired guy clenched his fists, taking deep breaths, and even though his eyes never left the screen that was feeding the coded updates Clint put a reassuring hand on his arm.

The third timer hit 00:00:30.

Ethan thought of dropping the call to Luther (who was now calling his name worriedly from the phones speaker, but all Ethan could do was focus on that damn countdown to when lasers or missiles or whatever nightmare HYDRA had thought up would rain down to kill him and his team) to try and call his parents or Julia, but there wasn't enough time.

00:00:03

Suddenly the red screen flashed, and the targeting on them disappeared before reappearing adjusted to the ships themselves. Clint screamed out a "yes" and pumped his fist in the air before shaking the curly haired guy who smiled at him, looking a little wane as the satellite view showed the three airborne battleships all firing on each other as the time hit 00:00:00.

Ethan took a deep breath. When he could fight for his life he was fine. This…

Then a new horror overtook him as he watched the three (flying) battleships start to fall, headed straight for S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ. No, he randomly thought as he stared transfixed at the disaster about to happen, completely unable to do anything. Clint, Stark, and the other guy, they had called the S.H.I.E.L.D. compound the Triskelion, which was definitely not something in the pool and Clint's bet of 'nothing guessed so far' was completely invalidated. "Oh crap…" Benji whispered voicing what was going through pretty much everyone's head. Even when it had been the Kremlin, Ethan'd been able to run to save his own life. To do something to keep his mind away from all the lives he couldn't save. Ethan recognized in the periphery of awareness that his phone went silent, even though the line hadn't disconnected.

He glanced at the text screen Clint had been focused on that had stopped changing, and hoped that whoever had been feeding him information made it out. He turned to the man to offer something, he didn't know what, only to find that Clint had already moved away. His earlier joy was still prevalent, but tempered slightly by the scene. The curly haired guy was still watching the screen, his face slightly grim, but there was also a kind of acceptance, perhaps resolution, there too, and Ethan didn’t know him well enough to say something that wasn’t a cliche.

He turned back to Clint who was now facing the S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents at the back, though he was angled in such a way that you could tell he was addressing the whole room. He had that bow poised loosely at his side, almost playfully, three arrows twirling around the fingers of his other hand in a complex pattern.

"That was my team, taking out the Helicarriers that HYDRA was hijacking. Now, I pretty much know that my teammates will be fine. They're the Black Widow and Captain America, after all. You've seen Iron Man in action, Thor…The Hulk." The arrows stopped spinning. “Now, the issue is, HYDRA just brought down S.H.I.E.L.D. Congrats.” The bow was knocked but not drawn with an arrow, the other two stuck in the tile floor standing up at his feet. Ethan couldn’t help but stare a moment at the small cracks radiating out from them, either Clint was inhumanly strong, or those arrows were insanely sharp. "Anyone that comes forward now, I'll let you try for the 2 heads for 1 deal HYDRA has going, but if you decide to see if you can hide from us, well…" Ethan could hear the dangerous smirk that took over Clint's features. "You'd be surprised what you can live though. Because we might not have been able to save S.H.I.E.L.D., but we're going to Avenge it."

The room was silent.

"Aww, come on, you honestly think I would believe that HYDRA only had two people out of everyone in this room? Last chance to step right up to choose a quick death, otherwise, well, Black Widow and I will get to use a few things that S.H.I.E.L.D. had on the banned list…"

Ethan was all for some applied use of violence to get answers, but he was pretty sure that Clint was threatening to flat out torture anyone from HYDRA that they caught after this. Plus, wasn't HYDRA's thing supreme, almost brainwashed loyalty? Why would the-

Suddenly a man from the S.H.I.E.L.D. contingent stepped forward, a look on his face one part terror, one part resignation. An Analyst started choking, and at a quick glance Ethan recognized the work of a suicide pill.

With a nod, Clint drew and released his arrow, killing the volunteer that stepped forward cleanly and spinning into a crouch to snag one of the planted arrows and aim at a Security Agent that was swinging his gun towards the Avenger, but Ethan beat him to landing a projectile between the guy’s eyes. Jane fired at the same time, taking out another Analyst that also moved towards Clint. The room sat there in shock, and Ethan really wished that rather than the Junior Agent Security forces and the Analysts that there were a few more experienced Field Agents in the room with them that he could trust.

Clint turned to Ethan and Jane and gave them an amused, kind of entertained glare. "I appreciate the backup guys, but I have this, and you have things to do."

"That and gunshots from people I don't know are really, really, not good for my blood pressure…" The curly haired guy muttered, and Clint grinned unrepentantly at him.

Ethan laughed a little. "Yeah, back up for UCs, etc. Why do you think I have Luther on the phone?" 

"You're lucky I'm still here," he heard Luther say. "I have response teams outside the SitRep room, but we're completely locked out, I am five seconds from okaying them to blow our way in."

Ethan frowned at his phone, "really?"

"Given the shit I just heard?" His friend snapped, and Ethan couldn't help but laugh. "You gonna let us in?"

"Given the shit you just heard, it depends on how sure you are of the people with you," Ethan replied as everyone got back to work at handling one of the biggest intelligence disasters in history.

XxXxX

Benji was decidedly NOT looking at the bloodstains that were all that was left of the people that had declared themselves HYDRA. It wasn't that he minded the death per say. It happened, especially in their line of work. Still, the way that Clint had dispatched them, threatened them, it was so unlike the William Brandt that was friends with him, that would banter with Ethan half exasperatedly, half joyfully, while they were on missions, or make sure that Benji had almost any tech toy he could ever want, share commiserating looks with Jane, and basically acted like a superly scary competent den mother to them all.

Every now and then he watched Clint, who had stripped off his bulky outer layer of un-Brandt-like clothes to reveal the custom S.H.I.E.L.D. tac suit that was the uniform Hawkeye was most commonly seen in (and oh man, Will was on trading cards, and action figures, and was a super hero) move around the room from station to station. He was doing his amazing level of multitasking to coordinate teams across the world in all the things that needed to be done to deal with this nightmare. The man also had two people and the curly haired guy (he was tempted to run facial recognition on him, but despite Tony freaking Stark calling him ‘Bruce’, Clint had only called him 'Doc' and the man didn't seem inclined to share, and Benji had a nagging feeling that he didn't want to know) fielding calls from everyone and their mother for both his identities, because apparently some people didn't even bother to check the download and realize that Clint and Will were the same person.

And maybe that was something that was bothering Benji, in all honestly. They lied to people, all the time. Killed them if there was no other option even if it sucked.

But they didn't lie to each other.

That was the reason why they could function at the extremely high level they were at, because they could trust each other no matter what. They'd known Will couldn't tell them things due to being an Analyst, because he'd been honest and upfront about it and it was obvious given his position.

None of them had a clue that he'd lied to them about who he was.

Ethan and Jane seemed to be relatively okay with it. Though they could just be bottling it up to be able to go on with saving lives, kicking butt, and taking names for now. But Benji was having a bit of a time syncing the sarcastic, showy, idiosyncratic Clint Barton who calmly shot former allies to the collected, thoughtful, and political (okay, and a little sarcastic) William Brandt.

Still there were things like the Venti Iced Mocha with extra shots that Clint had had someone get for Benji that was all Will taking care of his friends as much as possible even in the middle of a situation like this. Benji glared at his screen, willing it to go faster so he had less time to think about things like this. Instead he basically had to wait for this next bit of data to finish decrypting before he could continue any of the six things that he was doing. He'd managed to find what he was pretty sure was basically S.H.I.E.L.D.'s password encryption, and if it was, it would make handling everything else so much easier.

With another glance at Clint, Benji tapped his finger a few times nervously before deciding, oh he just had too! He pulled up a window and navigated to the copied personnel information, and with one more nervous look at Clint, clicked on the file labeled 'Hawkeye.'

At the top next to a standard agency headshot was all of Clint's vital stats. (Clinton Francis…. Benji bit back a laugh that was definitely not a giggle.)

He quickly browsed through the highlight section: parents dead, brother alive, lives in Brooklyn when he wasn't at Stark Tower, and just as he was getting to the years in service part, a hand stole his mouse from him and closed the screen. Benji absolutely did not make a high pitched squealing noise and jump into the air so high that it was only Ethan's quick reflexes that kept him from getting beaned in the face with Benji's head.

Benji glanced from Ethan to where Clint was staring at them with a raised eyebrow. Ethan shook his head and Clint nodded, going back to pointing something out to the Analyst he was working with, who Benji was pretty sure was the one that had been on that to-die list with them.

"He hasn't given us reason to not trust him yet."

"Bu-"

"If he wanted, he could have been in the wind. Instead he's here. Think about it," Ethan stated with one of his trademarked little head tilts and walked towards that curly haired guy. Benji looked at his computer, which was currently hooked up to the Stark supercomputer and their Private (not just general Internal, but Private) Server Network, and where he had THE Jarvis helping him process a decryption sequence. It was certainly true, Brandt had been skilled enough to disappear if he wanted, and Clint didn't seem to have lost any of Brandt's skills. Instead he had trusted them enough to ask for their help when he had learned that S.H.I.E.L.D. had, had been infiltrated. That the IMF was infiltrated. He had trusted them to not be HYDRA.

Well, mostly. He'd aimed a gun at them, but still, that was just one of those things with this team he'd noticed. First Dubai, then Oahu, and Cambridge… Oh he didn't want to think about Cambridge…

And when you considered he brought someone he considered a VIP in here, had told Tony STARK to trust Benji with access to his computer systems when everything was suspect…

Yeah. Will might not have given them his real name, but at his heart, he hadn't given them a reason to not trust him yet. Still, Benji saved about a hundred copies of that Personnel File, including two that he dropped off network to avoid possible changes. Just in case.

XxXxX

It was two hours after S.H.I.E.L.D. had fallen, and while Clint's actions in getting the IMF to lead the charge in creating some level of interagency cooperation to deal with the fallout had certainly minimized collateral damage and directed the "official" response into one of bringing people in so that guilt could be decided, Bruce was really not liking what they were seeing. They'd had to sit through more than a few live feeds from various sources where agents were being gunned down without a chance or facilities were blown up by 'friendly fire' as many people were no longer differentiating between S.H.I.E.L.D. and HYDRA. They'd lost more lives to various governments at this point than to the internal S.H.I.E.L.D. vs HYDRA or blown covers and enemy incursions.

Still, Clint refused to give up until he had to, and Bruce was going to stick by him no matter how much he wanted to go underground now. He knew that Tony would back him, same with the other Avengers, but according to an update Clint got from Natasha, even though she and Hill were on their way to the IMF, Cap was going to be in the hospital for at least a week. Tony and Thor were pretty busy dealing with various hotspots, and the pair of master assassins, well, since they had been S.H.I.E.L.D., their word probably wouldn't count for much.

Using one of the Stark Pads that Clint had pulled from the 3D table (which had turned out to be a Stark Industries custom unit that Clint had worked with Tony on and had installed 'just in case', which explained why it came loaded with some quivers and a bow for Clint, a Widow's Bite and discs for Natasha, along with a few other Avengers related goodies) Bruce was currently reviewing the medical notes on Cap and flipping through some of the background information on his 'friend' Falcon. Clint had waved five minutes at him a few minutes ago and left the room, and Ethan and Jane had taken that as their cue to stand right next to Bruce, as if guarding him for their friend. Benji kept an eye on him too, even though he and the techs he was working with were muttering furiously about a cascade outage.  
It was almost like the three had adopted him by proxy, and Bruce wasn't sure how he felt about that.

There was still a minute or so left in Clint's window, however, when Clint burst into the room in about as panicked a state as he got, and that just made everyone jump a bit. More than a few hands also flew to their guns. Clint had changed from his uniform into jeans, a purple t-shirt, and a leather jacket, with one of Natasha's hourglass belt buckles strapped around his neck on a leather cord, and he had a duffel over his shoulder with a hard case that Bruce assumed held a bow and quiver. Clint's eyes flew over the room before he raced to Bruce and grabbed his arm, starting to pull him towards one of the side exits.

"Clint-"

A woman burst through the door they were headed through and looked at them all in a state of near panic. "Some Army General just burst through the front doors with a whole ton of soldiers and they all split up but they're storming up here!" She cried, and Bruce froze… it couldn't be.

"Benjij, I need a clear exit now!" Clint snapped, tossing his duffle bag and flipping that hard case open to pull his bow and quiver out, getting ready to fight if needed. No, not now. If Clint tried to protect him when the world was so against S.H.I.E.L.D…

"There isn't one, they've got the room surrounded! According to the cameras they even have the emergency routes covered!"

"Clint, what's happening?" Ethan demanded, looking more than ready to move.

"Ross…" Bruce cursed, and Clint nodded.

"We can't let Ross get Bruce," Clint stated, already glancing around the room. Bruce could see the contingency plans being thought up and discarded a mile a minute.

"If you hand m-"

Clint's flinty grey-blue eyes met his, and damn did he look pissed. "Nat's promises are mine, Bruce, you know that. And I wouldn't hand my worst enemy to that dick, let alone a friend." With that Clint grabbed Bruce and dragged him towards the 3D table, kicking a side wall and revealing a storage compartment. Bruce's claustrophobia started to kick in just looking at it but Clint didn't give him a chance to complain before the cases in it were pulled out and Bruce was unceremoniously shoved in. "I know it sucks, bear with it for a bit, please. Ethan will let you out when it's safe." Then the door slammed, and Bruce didn't even get to question why Ethan would release him, and not Clint himself.

The compartment was definitely not soundproof, and Bruce heard Clint and the others quickly dispersing the boxes to make them less obvious.  
Bruce tried to control his breathing, keep his heart rate down, even as the walls closed in on him.

smashsmashsmashsmashsmash - NO!

The process of not giving into the green starting to blur the edges of his vision was definitely made harder when a voice from his worst nightmares spoke loud enough that it was discernible through the walls, "Barton, you've got one chance, where's the Hulk?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well.... I my defense you know that Ross would be enough of a jerk to do that.... 
> 
> Thank you everyone for reviewing and the support. I hope that you enjoyed the latest chapter!
> 
> Edit: 08/21/2015 – fixed some grammar/formatting/awkward phrases… One day I will catch everything before I publish something… One day…


	3. Chapter Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clint Barton doesn't have a lot of time to prepare the IMF for S.H.I.E.L.D. going up in flames, even if he does have a modicum of sway as William Brandt. Still, he figures he can probably get a solid benefits package out of the deal if he survives his life coming down around his ears again.

Ethan knew General "Thunderbolt" Ross by name, and could pick him out of a crowd, but he had never met the man personally. Given the look of fear that had crossed Bruce's face, and the state that Clint was in as he threw boxes for people to scatter to make them less obtrusive, well, he was thinking that the man's reputation as an unreasonable hardass was probably an understatement. After he handed off the last box, Clint tossed his unlocked phone to Jane, along with instructions to get to the gates and whatever it took and stop the red headed woman in pic 42 from getting caught by Ross. Then later, once she was safe, tell her ‘Code Veronica Samifer.’  
All of the two’s actions made Ethan especially glad that he had drugged both Boxter and Larson and shoved them in a closet. They'd probably roll right over and give Ross whatever he wanted, damn the consequences.

Jane nodded and quickly left the room at a brisk walk even as Benji called out a route. She'd probably be able to talk her way through any military that got in her way, especially since she definitely wasn't a curly haired, older guy.

Clint looked at his bow in contemplation, and shot a quick, longing glance at its case before dropping it to the surface of the 3D table, and swinging his quiver down from his back to the floor.

Still, something was pinging in the back of Ethan’s head at this. There could be any number of reasons for keeping someone out of the custody of a government as a whole, but Clint’s reaction seemed a little extreme for that. After all, worst case scenario and Bruce got captured, they could always break them out if needed. And that thought sparked the connection in Ethan’s head. There had been rumors that General Ross was involved in several incidents where the Hulk fought it’s way out of… Ethan quickly mentally ran back through wanted posters, and picked out a face that reminded him-

Clint raised his hands right as General Ross and his heavily armed escort burst through the main doors to the room. It only took a moment for Ethan to completely assess the man who had managed to intimidate his way past their Security. His uniform was perfect, as was his almost over-groomed hair and mustache and he practically screamed warhawk. Yeah, their Junior agents wouldn’t have stood a chance against the literal and figurative firepower the General eying Clint up and down dismissively would have leveled at them. "Barton, you've got one chance, where's the Hulk?"

Ethan heard several people gasp, and knew he had put it together correctly. That quiet, unassuming, pretty brilliant guy was the Hulk.  
Clint was right; they couldn't let Ross get his hands on him.

"General," Ethan stepped forward and propelled a surprised Clint back to just a bit behind him. "On what authority are you storming IMF Headquarters and demanding the handover of an individual without clarifying their crimes? I assume that you have some type of warrant or other documentation?"

“I don't have to give you anything to take that monster in, especially now that S.H.I.E.L.D was exposed to the world for the giant fake, funding sync that it always has been and can't interfere anymore. Besides, you're already harboring a possible HYDRA spy,” he pointed at Clint threateningly, “so if anyone needs paperwork to cover their ass, it's you."

Ethan nodded, as if accepting the argument even though he really just thought it was stupid. "Still, General, given the circumstances, anyone could be HYDRA, and I am not inclined to share information or resources until I have reassurances that you aren't."

The man bristled like a porcupine at that, and Ethan knew he had to keep this up. It was pretty obvious that Clint was intending to do something that wasn't a fight, otherwise he wouldn't have dropped his bow. Ethan didn't feel quite confident enough to say he could figure out what Clint was going to do like he'd been able to predict Will's behaviors, but he was pretty sure that he wouldn't like whatever was about to go down.

"Don't try and turn this around, I am much more sure of myself and my forces than you-” Ross waved a hand dismissively around the room “people at this knock off S.H.I.E.L.D. operation you're running here. One way or the other I will hunt that monster down and the only question you need to ask yourself is if I am going to go through you to do it."

"Yeah, ‘cause you were doing such a good job bringing him in before," Clint snapped, in a horribly snarky, sarcastic tone and General Ross's eyes narrowed over Ethan’s shoulder at his Analyst with a type of devilish hatred.

What th-

Since when did his friend deliberately drop a bomb like that in the middle of a tense negotiation? Clint had once helped him talk down a furious Ukrainian mob boss with a spurned sister and a gun crazy African warlord from a fight. While compared to the current situation that conversation seemed like morning tea time, none of the former patience was present.

"Well, without you and that red headed bitch constantly mucking up our search efforts this time, we'll definitely see," Ross practically growled.

"Oh, really, that was the only reason that you sucked? And here I thought that, you know, it was 'cause you had the common sense of a spoiled five year old."  
What the heck was Clint doing! Not only was his attitude entirely against every negotiating tactic he had ever seen, what he was doing was completely counterproductive.

"You always had a smart mouth, Barton. Well, thanks to your own loyalties, Coulson isn't here to cover for you anymore," Ethan didn't need to be facing Clint to know that the General really shouldn't have said that, even if he didn’t completely get the implications yet. "So I wouldn't keep pushing your rather pathetic luck. One last time, where is the Hulk?"

"You really think he'd be here, Thunderass? Besides, that was my second chance so you're kind of contradicting your prior statement there," Clint retorted starkly, and frankly, immature insult aside, Ethan could honestly say that he had never, ever seen the other man be so deliberately antagonistic.

Ross's face was taken over by a horrible grin. "You know Barton, I was mostly going to leave you other Avengers up to whoever wanted to deal with your sorry, insubordinate asses, but I think that I'll save them a favor and just arrest you for Crimes Against Humanity right now. After all, Fury isn't here anymore either, can't make up dozens of excuses to keep his pet mercenary from facing what he deserves. Tell me, rumor has it that you were sleeping with Coulson, or both him and Fury, to earn that. Which is it?"

"Aww, why I do declare, General, is that your way of asking if I'm up for a threesome with you and your inflatable boyfriend? Because I am going to have to say no." Had the situation been any different, Ethan would probably be amused at the back and forth, the witty snark Clint was putting out, but for now he just stared. Was Clint deliberately trying to piss Ross off?

"I heard that your brother got moved out of solitary into gen pop in that Supermax he was in. I’m sure that we can arrange for you to share cell space with him while you’re waiting for trial for helping that over-inflated, alien brat, Loki, and whatever else we decide to stick on you. Since S.H.I.E.L.D. fell even the incidents covered by your dep are up for grabs." Helping Loki? A dep? What? Dep’s were almost unheard of these days, as pretty much no one trusted anyone who signed up for a military service rather than jail deal. He didn’t even know that Intelligence Agencies did that… Turn someone into a Criminal Informant or contractor yes, Agent no. Ethan fought to keep his eyes on Ross and not turn to look at Clint. "Give up the Hulk quickly and I might agree to not to throw in your early service record, give me the Widow, and I won't bring Budapest into it. That way you might have a shot at avoiding the needle.” Ross grinned even more evilly (if that was possible), “or maybe it should be a firing squad, since you're so old fashioned that way."

"Seriously Ross, you really need to learn to recognize when you are way out of your league. That way you'll stop making an idiot out of yourself going after one of us. Oh, and by the way, it's pronounced 'Budapeshed'," Clint returned with his own wild grin. Oh he was definitely doing this on purpose. Each barb was pretty much designed to make the other man another shade redder. Why? Was he trying to focus Ross on him? Buy time?

"All of you Avengers will be going down now that there isn't S.H.I.E.L.D. covering for all the metas. Everything you've done is there for the world to see now. Thor and his brother are part of the same flock; Stark is a nail that is sticking out, just begging to be hammered down; Rogers a loose cannon science experiment that needs to be brought under control; the Hulk a monster that needs to be contained or destroyed; the Widow is a commie psychopath that should have been put down like the rabid bitch that she is and you're just some carnie white trash freak that needs to remember your place in the gutter."

Even with all the questions Ethan currently had about the things that Ross had insinuated and Clint hadn’t bothered to refute, he felt a white hot flare of rage at the way Ross so blatantly insulted his Analyst. Combined with his shocked disbelief that someone who had made it to General would say something that disgustingly disdainful and prejudiced in public, let alone say it at all, and Ethan wasn't sure how he kept from shooting Ross on basic principle. He also really hoped that the rumors about the Hulk’s temper were exaggerated… or that the guy they were currently protecting couldn't hear them.

"Wow, do you kiss your daughter with that mouth? And seriously? You can't even keep to the same metaphor in a single list and you can't tell the difference between one chance and two, the standards for making a General must have really slipped lately."

"Enough Barton! You two, cuff him! The rest of you tear this place apart and find the monster!"

Ethan reached back and grabbed Clint, shutting him up with a quick, sharp glance before maneuvering him further behind him and glaring at all of Ross's men enough that they, already a little hesitant, froze a bit more. "I'd encourage each and every one of you think very carefully about whether that order is legal or not. Because I can guarantee you that arresting one of the people that saved the world from an alien invasion… that won't stay quiet. Additionally I can see no reasonable grounds to cooperate with a search of our facility since we have ongoing Top Secret missions and you have no arrest warrants or other form of legal request to place either this man, or any other, into custody. Given that there have been traitors discovered in nearly every branch of multiple Governments at this point, my people have orders to shoot first and ask questions later as of right now. Especially since Clint is one of ours, as much as he is a member of the Avengers or a former Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D."

The room tensed, and he watched the men glance at each other considering, but Ross just scoffed. "Empty threats, whoever you are. Men, arrest him and start the search for the monster, now!"

"I don't think so, General Ross," came a frankly pissed off sounding, commanding female voice, and suddenly the rather infamous Pepper Potts stalked in between Ethan and Ross on heels that looked pointy enough to stab someone with. She turned what had to be a level 9.5 glare on Ross, and Ethan wisely stepped back. "Clint Barton is a Stark Industries employee. You lay one finger on him and I will have every lawyer in every one of our firms down your throat in a heartbeat. This is blatant harassment and exclusionary bias.”

The General made the absolute mistake of talking down when he replied. "Ms. Potts, with all due respect, I doubt any faked contract you pull up will save Barton from getting what he deserves."

Ethan almost...nah, okay, he didn't feel sorry for the man at all.  
The smile she shot him was nothing but purely sweet. Ethan didn’t flinch, but it was close. "General Ross, I'd like to give you the opportunity to recognize who you are speaking with. I am the CEO of Stark Industries. We have 22 major Senators on speed dial, and I can reach the President in approximately 2 minutes and 9 seconds. We hold more than 32% of government tech contracts through Stark Industries proper. That doesn't count our subsidiaries or partners. Now, I personally find your blind egotism reprehensible, but if you back off right now, you may be able to keep your job through the end of today."

Wow. Now that was one woman Ethan did not want to mess with. The General even looked a tad peaky, but he sounded strong as he replied.

"My branch of the government has all contracts with Hammer Industries. There is no way--"

"General Ross," Pepper cut in, still as sharply sweet as ever. Ethan was surprised her soft voice carried over the General's, but it did. "If you think that going through Hammer will save you than you are even less informed than I originally thought," with that, she handed him an envelope. "This is a cease and desist notice in regards to your relentless, unmitigated hunting of Doctor Banner and his associates the Avengers, including Clint Barton A.K.A. Hawkeye, with a restraining order as well. I suggest you follow them."

General Ross glared down at her, but before he could say anything, the rather sing-songy voice of one Tony Stark cut through the room, "Ooohhhh…. I'd listen to her, the last time she talked like that I got spanked, and not in the good way." Ethan had to blink. He had known intellectually that the Iron Man armor was rather large and that Thor was a towering deity, but that did nothing to prepare him for the sight of the two of them standing framed in the door. Well, more like taking up most of the main door which was a rather large sliding affair that two people should not have been able to make seem small.

And Iron Man didn’t even have his helmet on and Thor was missing that long red cape he was seen in during fights.

"Yo guys, what's up?" Clint called with a wave.

"Really? A 'yo' Barton?" Iron Man asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Well it was that or 'you're ruining my fun watching Pepper rip this idiot a new one,' but that just seemed ungrateful."

"Our fair archer has a point, Man of Iron." Thor stated, clapping Iron Man on the shoulder making Stark smirk and hit him back in the shoulder lightly with the helmet dangling in his hand.

"Hear that Legolas? Point Break thinks you're 'fair'!"

"Aww, thanks Thor, I think you're pretty too! You should watch out for Ross though, he's looking for someone to have a threesome with him and his boyfriend blow up doll and he got kind of aggressive about it when I turned him down."

"Are you having trouble accepting what no means again, Ross? Do you have another favorite bar I can buy so that we have a place to chat about boundaries?"

"Question," Thor raised a hand like a kid in school, "boyfriend blow up doll? Is this similar to the Ken doll that the Lady Darcy has compared me to?"

"Yeah, but it's basically life size and you can stick your unmentionables into holes in it, or attach phyllic objects to insert in yourself."

"Ah." Thor turned to Ross and in all apparent seriousness told him. "I am afraid that I would also need to decline your most generous offer as my Love, the most beautiful and brilliant Lady Jane, insists that we be intimate with only each other. If you wish to bout over this dismissal, I would be happy to meet you on a field of battle of your choice."

WHAT. THE. HECK?!

Ethan glanced around the room to see everyone staring at the Avengers in open mouthed shock, while Pepper Potts rubbed a hand over her eyes, and Ross pretty much had steam coming out of his ears. Ethan was able to note with a fair bit of amusement that the General's face had started to swell a little with all the blood in it.

Still, based on Pott's reaction, Ethan had the horrible feeling that this was somewhat normal. Oh God, they would need to scrub this footage… Burn it all… No that wouldn't work, the Avengers files were out there in the open now, and there was bound to be incident reports from other things similar to this. The world would know that the few people that stood between it and destruction were completely, unashamedly out of their minds.

"General Ross," Potts said one more time, this time in a soothing tone, and Ethan was exceedingly impressed with her that she could mask her earlier rage so well to try and calm the situation created by the Avengers down. Even her imposing, perfect looking business skirt and jacket somehow looked less severe than it had a minute ago, which was an impressive feet.

"Just don't Ms. Potts. And contrary to what you said earlier Barton, I do know my limits. Don't even imagine this is over though."

Ethan was angled just enough to see Clint give one of the most sarcastic salutes in history as General Ross barked an order to his men and they quickly filed out. Ethan jerked his head to some of the Junior Agents in the back and they quickly moved to trail them to the exits.

"Well, Legolas, that was fun, now whe-" Clint held up a hand, cutting Stark off.

"Sweep for any listening devices they may have left behind."

"Ross isn't smart enough to bug us," Iron Man replied, but put his helmet back on and held up a hand. A blue, thin filament of light emitted from the glove and ran over the room. Everyone stayed quiet for a few minutes before he nodded. The antenna slid back into the suit which then split apart at a jagged seam allowing Tony Stark to step out, before closing behind him. "We're clear."

"Right, give me a hand." Clint strode over to the 3D table, and Stark rushed after him. They made quick work of dropping the panel and opening the storage cabinet, revealing Bruce Banner, AKA the Hulk, who promptly pushed out of the hole and punched Clint right in the face, sending him reeling.

"WHAT WAS THAT YOU STUPID ID-"

"Aww, does Brucie need his big bag of weed?" interrupted Stark with a grin.

"Did you hear what Ross was saying, Tony?" Banner snapped with a glare.

"We did, and I am going to present recordings to our lawyers to see if we can pre-emptively sue or see about heading off any other proceedings," stated Potts, and Banner blinked.

"Speaking of, since when am I a Stark Industries employee?" Clint asked Potts, who smiled even though he made a rather pathetic sight holding his nose.

"Since three months ago, you really need to pay more attention to what I make you sign," came an inordinately pleased sounding voice from one of the side exits and Ethan turned to see Jane there in her office chic with a young woman in black skinny jeans, sneakers and a brown leather jacket, her red hair hanging loose under a black cap.

"Well it's you, Nat," Clint drolled with an eyeroll. The woman shook her head as she and Jane moved across the room. She carefully pulled Clint's hands away from his face. "Nothing's broken, but the Doc still packs a raging punch," Clint informed her with a grin, though she just raised an eyebrow and started to lightly test the area.  
Ethan felt something in his chest constrict when he spotted the arrow necklace hanging at her throat and made the connection to large charm (an hourglass, for Black Widow, because based on the set up for the Avengers there was no one else this woman could be) that was on Clint's necklace. Were they...?

"Bad pun, Robin Hood," Stark grinned even wider.

"Can we focus back on the fact that Clint tried to get himself arrested to throw Ross off my trail, here, please?" Banner snapped, obviously still not over his irritation at the situation, for which Ethan honestly and truly sympathized. In fact, it was the reason that Ethan was already planning a diversionary tactics seminar for the team in his head.

"Aww, come on, I warned Nat what I was doing AND it's only Ross. When I resisted arrest I would have taken out enough of his people to make a search for you pretty much impossible and I'd have escaped within a week, max. And didn't I-"

"If you really think that I was going to leave you to Ross even that long, you're being crazier than normal," the Black Widow jabbed a finger on the forming red mark from Banner's punch, which was in complete contrast to the rather fond tone of her voice.

"I was planning on that! Escape plans 4B through 12D counted on you already positioning yourself in his command! And I knew you'd be there for back up on the others!" Clint practically whined. She lightly tapped the side of his head in warning before letting his face go. Ethan did not give into the urge to run a hand over his face, but it was close.

"Nothing's broken that wasn't already busted before," she informed the others (they all ignored Clint's mulish "told you so") and turned to Ethan with a knowing look on her face. He wasn't quite sure what to say to her. Somehow he didn't think 'I swear I never made a move on your-' but he couldn't even finish that sentence since he didn't know what they were to each other, but based on the fact that they wore each other's calling cards so openly with lives like theirs, Ethan knew that they had to be close.

"Ross is sidelined for now, and after your heads up I have our HR department working to prepare on boarding for Maria and any other Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. that we decide to bring over so that we can protect them, but what's our plan from here?" Potts asked, arms folded over her chest, eyebrow raised at Stark. "Or do we even have a plan?"

"Aye, we have completed the tasks originally asked of us, and as I understand it much of what is left is now more along the lines of, as you call it, the cleanup," Thor said.

Stark nodded. "I checked your frequencies on the way over. Seems like there's still a few hot spots but nothing our level unless there’s some secret tech or something that you guys know about that wasn't flagged. So, yeah, as this is more your area than ours, what can we do, Spy Twins?"

Clint and the Black Widow (Nat, the most slippery and perfect spy known in human history, and Clint called her Nat and wore her mark around his neck) looked at each other and started a conversation in raised eyebrows, head tilts, and quirked lips. A quick glance around showed everyone looking as lost as he felt at trying to read the communication between them, though Jane's eye was starting to twitch.

Finally, as if coming to an agreement, Clint shrugged and waved a hand idly at the Black Widow who nodded.

"There's a few options,” she started. “But first, we can't keep taking up IMF space. Hill is already dragging their drugged Secretary and Head Analyst out of a closet-"

"You put them in a closet, Ethan?" Benji asked while Jane sighed (but he noticed she hadn’t stopped to help Hill, whoever that was) and he shrugged.

"They were annoying."

"Oh, I like him. We’re keeping him," Stark said, and was promptly ignored.

"Hill is taking care of them. With Clint's intel and profiles she'll be able to get them to cooperate, but if they're seen to be harboring us more than they already are, it'll be bad," Black Widow finished.

"Frankly, the IMF's not equipped to handle some of the straight up fights that S.H.I.E.L.D. took on. Those're probably better left to the military for now. They've got the next best intelligence network, and they already take on most of the higher level, non-freaky stuff so they're actually pretty well placed to begin handling what S.H.I.E.L.D. was doing from a UC and logistics standpoint. With the right maneuvering they could have things back up and running pretty quick. But part of that is distancing themselves from us so that other agencies trust them more," Clint finished for her, before turning to Ethan, Jane, and Benji, who had moved to stand by them from his computer. "You guys, I-"

"Am so meeting us for a beer later and we'll hash things out then," Jane grinned, and Clint nodded.

"Sorry, but, you know, I kind of called S.H.I.E.L.D. being evil, even if not in this way, so I have to ask. Are you sure we're not just trading one big bad for another if they take on that much?" Stark questioned.

Ethan looked Stark in the eye. "I can't speak for the future, and we've had our share of spies and traitors, but I can tell you that I've told the President himself to go jump off a cliff and my team has been disavowed enough times to instill a certain level of caution when it comes to following the status quo. I can guarantee you that we'll be careful."

Stark nodded cautiously.

"And I trust them, Tony." Ethan turned to Clint, who was leaning back, hands threaded behind his head, casual and loose in a way Brandt never really had been. "Their current analysts are top notch, and their agents are just as good as most of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s but without the blatant military bent most of our S.T.R.I.K.E. Teams had towards the end. They'll take down threats, but the fighting and the deaths and the black stuff are their last options a lot more often than it ever was S.H.I.E.L.D.'s."

Stark nodded at that, seriously, before looking at the IMF Agents around him. "I'll still be keeping an eye on you." He grinned suddenly. "After all, there was enough mayhem around here to keep Clint happy, and he needs at least three explosions and a broken bone before breakfast."

"Two explosions, Stark, and I sometimes settle for sprains rather than broken bones," Clint grinned, "and I got through things by asking myself ‘what would Coulson do?’ and then doing that." Stark burst out laughing while the Black Widow rolled her eyes.

"WWCD?" Start finally bit out before collapsing in laughter onto Thor's shoulder who just looked vaguely amused.

"There was Super Nanny and fresh baked scones involved every time he had to adjust his persona," the Black Widow chimed in. "I have pictures."

"And I want copies of those for our albums, Natasha, but for now I've had Jarvis air your suites at the Tower out. Jane, Darcy, and Eric are currently in route there, Thor," Potts interjected. "We thought it might be safer for the next little bit since we didn't know if HYDRA would make a move on them."

"Thank you, Lady Pepper. Your foresight and consideration are much appreciated as always," the tall blonde man nodded.

"You're welcome, a chopper is currently waiting outside to take us to the airport. Tony, I know you hate flying under mach 1000, but you're pacing us since I couldn't get an armored one that quick. We'll talk additional plans later." She turned to Ethan, Benji, and Jane and smiled brightly. "I'll have Clint get in touch with your accesses to the Tower so you can come and go as needed, and you can have that beer on Tony."

"Thanks," Ethan nodded. "It's appreciated."

"We're not going to the Tower," contradicted the Black Widow. And Ethan wasn't the only one to turn and stare at her and Clint, who was standing shoulder to shoulder with her. "If we go you'll have to spend too many resources on us that you'll need to keep Ross and others away from the rest of the team, and it will invite a lot of negative press that you can't afford."

"What makes you two think you're special that way? Have you seen how much negative press I generate on a daily basis? I know you must have,” he waved wildly at the Black Widow, “you worked for me." Stark snapped. "And let's not get started on the insanity and conspiracy theories that pop up around our Lovable Giant Green Rage Monster, Pikachu, and History’s Golden Boy."

"Tony, that’s the point. If you heard what Ross said then you heard that my protection, my dep, and everything else is pretty much gone, and if mine is Nat's is too."

"Yeah, didn't care what he was saying so-"

"It means that the crimes we committed pre-S.H.I.E.L.D. can be used against us, Stark," Natasha interrupted. "And every order that we followed for S.H.I.E.L.D. is going to be looked at with a fine tooth comb. Given the nature of S.H.I.E.L.D. as an intelligence and first strike division, there is going to be more gray area, but we still had the responsibility to refuse illegal orders."

"And we're comfortable with everything that doesn't cross our personal codes, and even some things that do if the right person is asking for it. We trusted Fury and Coulson to give us orders that were for the good of the world, even if the acts we carried out weren't good," Clint stated acceptingly with a shrug. "Since HYDRA was in our system all the way up to Sitwell and Pierce though, we can't say how many orders we followed won't be able to be used against us validly in a court of law to try and force us into service with other Agencies if not lock us away."

"And that's if they don't just execute us," the Black Widow stated with her own shrug. “It would not be the first time that problems like us were removed expediently.”

"Cause we weren't always on the side of angels, and while we’ve honestly been converted to the light side not everyone believes it,” Clint looked down, before looking right at Thor who winced a little, as if anticipating what was coming next. “And even though it's the truth, not many people buy a magical mind whammy as an excuse for aiding and abetting the terrorist, no offense Thor, that lead an alien army to try and take over the world."

Ethan could practically feel the guilt dripping off those words, and knew that he would need to get the whole story from Clint later, and do what he could to help. He almost wanted to sigh in relief at the fact that shouldering far too much blame for situations outside his control was a Clint thing, and not just part of his cover as William Brandt. He wasn’t entirely sure what it said about his acceptance of this whole situation that a part of him just felt grateful that a lot of what he’d seen about Clint matched the persona he’d been using with them, and nothing directly contradicted what he knew either.

Luckily, he had a few seconds of silence after Clint and the Black Widow’s statements to finish processing his thoughts before the argument was on.

"I'm sorry, are you both done with your pity parties, cause that isn't going to fly with me. You're coming with us and I'm going to replay all the messages and lectures you two gave me about calling for help after that whole AIM fiasco," Stark glared. "You're shutting up and getting on the chopper even if Thor has to sit on you."

"I would not need to sit on you, as though you are both excellent fighters, you are no match for my strength."

"You set it up that you're employees of Stark Industries, and have access to our legal team for a reason, Natasha. Let us at least try," Potts said with a smile.

"And on the off chance that isn't enough, you know I'm prepared to do what I need to Clint," Ethan added. “I have enough favors left that if anyone does try to force you guys into service and we can’t stop it, the agency that wins on who gets you is the IMF. That or I can help you run after we’ve tried every other option, your choice.”

The two looked at each other. "Fine, we'll play it your way, but we reserve the right to have Wade say 'I told you so' for a solid week on our behalf if this goes sideways," Clint finally agreed.

"He is not invited to the Tower," Stark stated even as he moved to step into his armor.

"Like that would stop him, and I am half tempted to make you be the one to tell him we can't go on all the jobs he started to plan for the three of us."

"What did he have lined up?" Black Widow asked curiously. Ethan was not reassured when Clint grinned.

"Let's just say you'd need to pull out the Nigerian cover for one of them," Clint said even as he moved to put his bow and quiver back in their hardcase. He also pointed to a spot near him on the 3D table and the Black Widow promptly rushed over, poking at it for a few seconds before grinning as it revealed two weird cuffs and a bunch of thin disks.

Watching Clint and the Black Widow mess around with the table made Stark snap his fingers and he joined them. Ethan knew enough about impossible to hack systems to recognize that he was locking the table down. Sure enough, "don't let anyone touch this one, I'll have it replaced in a bit, the other one is normal though, so no worries."

"Got it," Ethan agreed. The Avengers took that as a cue and started gathering up a few of the crates and things that Clint and Tony pointed at, probably more Avengers related gear that they didn't want to leave around, bantering the whole time while Pepper pulled out her phone to check with the copter that it could take the weight. Ethan was about to try and snag Clint's attention to say a bit more of a personal "see you later" when Benji practically yelled.

"Clint! Alarm on one of the VIPs you gave me, someone, an Agent Hand? Yeah, Victoria Hand just tried to have their bird shot down!"

Clint dropped everything in his arms except the case with his bow and quiver and was next to Benji in a second flat, Black Widow right behind him as the flight capable Avengers suddenly looked ready to take off through the roof if given the signal. "What? Who?" He asked even as he looked at Benji's screen then suddenly went white as a sheet and staggered a little, looking like he was going to throw up.

Ethan managed to beat all the Avengers to grab Clint. He was pretty sure the only reason he beat the Black Widow given the distance was because she was too busy staring at the screen in with a blank face that on anybody else would probably be shocked horror. Ethan really wasn’t sure he wanted to know what could make her and Clint freak out this much, but knew that the sooner he figured it out and took care of it, the better. 

First though he pushed Clint to a sitting position in a chair that Jane rolled to him and directed his head in between his legs. "Breathe, it's okay, Clint, breathe," he ordered as soothingly as he could.

Clint looked up at him, and raised the trembling hand that wasn’t clenched white knuckled around the case with his bow and arrows to grab Ethan’s shirt, pulling him so that he met his gaze dead on. His mouth opened a few times before a whimpered noise came out that made Ethan want to punch something, hard. "He's dead….” Clint finally bit out. “This is impossible… He shouldn’t be alive to be shot at!” 

This… was really not helping Ethan reign in his urge to find and beat the crap out of whatever was hurting his analyst this badly. “Clint, it’s okay. W-”

Clint shook his head violently even as the Black Widow let out a vile curse in Russian that Ethan automatically filed away for use if he ever needed to terrify any Russian badasses. “It’s not okay,” she finished, glaring at Ethan enough to make him a little nervous.

“It isn’t…” Clint agreed, quietly. “Fury told us he was dead. And Fury lies but, this… I’m his damn A011!” Ethan didn’t know what that was, but assumed it was probably like their form BK972, which meant that Clint could have been told that whoever this was had faked their death. “I didn't even realize I put his name on the list cause he’s supposed to be dead already and I know I don’t always…." Clint stuttered, and another choked whimper came out of his throat, and his fingers tightened even further in Ethan’s shirt, choking him just a bit as it pulled but there was no way that he was going to complain. Ethan glanced up at the Black Widow, her face still in that blank mask as she watched Clint, but she was a shade or two paler than she had been before, and there was something that seemed a little lost about her.

Whatever this was - no. Whoever this was, Ethan was going to rip their hearts out for hurting Clint and this woman that was so important to him.

"Benji!" Ethan snapped, but the man just gave him a wide eyed, confused stare.

“I- don’t - I-”

"Who is it?" Pepper snapped, stalking over to him on her sharp heels, only to pale herself and glance at Tony worriedly.

Benji looked at the Avengers, and, looking a little nervous at the reply he would get, pulled himself together and stated, "Agent Phillip J. Coulson, who near as I can tell is very much not dead. And his plane is being chased by a missile."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I know it isn't a big deal/reveal for us, but meh... It is for them. Hope this was worth the wait. :) Please let me know what you think! :)
> 
> A note on the pronunciation of Budapest - the way Natasha pronounced it in The Avengers is actually correct, but most Americans use the form that Clint used with the hard 't' at the end. I thought that was a neat little thing in the movie, as I can see Natasha being all correct about it and Clint being meh, whatever. Still he'd know the correct form and would totally throw it in Ross's face when being, well, antagonistic with someone that annoys him. 
> 
> Also… Saw AoU and MI:5 and loved them. May or may not adjust what is already plotted for this to factor some of it in.


End file.
